Welcome! And thank you for dropping by my user page. I've been a regular editor since 2010 (and edited intermittently from 2007-2010), mainly writing articles about the culture and history of Madagascar, as well as Rwandan topics and the musical traditions of the world. I help to translate some of the content from the French-language Wikipedia and also review Good Article nominations.

Madagascar culture and history articles remain my top priority. I'm currently residing in Madagascar, have Malagasy family in Tana and visited/lived here six times between 1999-2015. It's a great country with wonderful people that seem to always get overlooked, perhaps because it's an island, perhaps because it's culturally more Asian despite its proximity to Africa, or maybe because Madagascar's wildlife and scenery are so spectacular that they end up hogging the spotlight. Whatever the reason, it's been my project for a while now to plug information gaps about the people of Madagascar - both on Wikipedia through a series of articles, and on Youtube at my channel on Malagasy cuisine. Go visit and try some of the recipes to discover the cuisine for yourself!

As a note to myself more than anything, here are the articles I am currently working on.

• 0. Keeping Madagascar current

• 1. Getting List of national parks of Madagascar and Antananarivo to FA status and these to GA status: the Menalamba rebellion, History of Madagascar, Culture of Madagascar, Christianity in Madagascar, and Malagasy language.

• 2. Getting articles on each of the ethnic groups to B class. How's that coming? Well: Antaifasy (B), Antaimoro (GA), Antaisaka (B), Antambahoaka (B), Antandroy (B), Antankarana (B), Antanosy (C), Bara (B), Betsileo (C), Betsimisaraka (B), Bezanozano (B), Mahafaly (B), Makoa (C), Merina (C), Mikea (GA), Sakalava (C), Sihanaka (GA), Tanala (B), Tsimihety (C), Vezo (C), Zafimaniry (B), Zafisoro (stub)

• 3. Expanding these to B class: Literature of Madagascar, Dzama, Chocolaterie Robert, Boina Kingdom, Kingdom of Imerina, Malagasy Protectorate, French Madagascar, First Republic of Madagascar, Second Republic of Madagascar, Third Republic of Madagascar, Fourth Republic of Madagascar, Malagasy people, Religion in Madagascar, Fauna of Madagascar, Geography of Madagascar, Antsiranana, Fianarantsoa, Atsinanana, Mahajanga, Toamasina, Toliara, Tolagnaro, Morondava, Sambava, Jean Ralaimongo, Monja Jaona, Karana, Sinoa, Vazaha, tromba (Malagasy trance traditions) and Malagasy cosmology.

• 4. Getting these to GA class: Education in Madagascar, Radama I, Ranavalona II, Rasoherina, Vazimba, Samoëla, AmbondronA, the 2009 Malagasy political crisis, Rossy, sampy, lamba, Didier Ratsiraka, Philibert Tsiranana, Albert Zafy, Andriambelomasina, Pere Pedro, Rotaka, MDRM PADESM, Ny Avana Ramanantoanina, Vy Vato Sakelika, fady,

• 5. Expanding these to C class or better: valiha, kabosy, sodina, jejy voatavo and lokanga, and the genres of tsapiky, kilalaka, salegy, hiragasy, vakodrazana, mangaliba, kalon'ny fahiny, beko, ba-gasy, horija (rija), and all the parks on the List of national parks of Madagascar article.

• 6. Getting these to FA status (one day): Music of Madagascar, Architecture of Madagascar

Improving coverage of Rwanda-related articles is also something I'd like to do. In order of priority, I'm interested in improving the articles on the Rwandan Genocide, the National parks of Rwanda, Kigali, Nyungwe National Park, Volcanoes National Park, Akagera National Park, the History of Rwanda, Lake Kivu, Gitarama, the Kingdom of Rwanda, Imigongo, Mushanana, Huye, Education in Rwanda, the Culture of Rwanda, the Music of Rwanda, Rwanda-Urundi, Ndoli, and the Rwandan people.

World music articles are also high on my list of priorities. I'd like to help improve Music of Mali, Music of Senegal, Music of Egypt, Music of Morocco and Music of Pakistan in the next year or so. A longer term goal is to get articles for major world artists up to the FA level, including Fairouz, Junoon, Oum Kalthoum, Edith Piaf, Koffi Olomide, Lucky Dube, Fela Kuti, Brenda Fassie, Miriam Makeba, Orchestre Poly Rythmo de Cotonou, Habib Koité, Amal Hijazi, Oliver Mtukudzi, Cheb Khaled, Faudel, Youssou N'Dour, Salif Keita, Toots and the Maytals, Nancy Ajram, Rain, George Wassouf, A. R. Rahman and Amr Diab. An even bigger task will be to improve articles on genres like Raï, Ndombolo, Gnawa, Reggae, Al Jeel, Zouk, Dancehall, Soukous, Kidandali, Highlife, Mbalax and Palm wine music.

I'd also like to help develop the articles on the region where I'm from - the Pacific Northwest - and particularly those relating to the Native American peoples of the area. Coverage on those nations is woefully lacking on WP. On my radar are Duwamish tribe, History of the west coast of North America, Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Makah people, Squamish people, Totem pole and Formline art. In addition, there are quite a few "pet" articles I'd like to get to FA: Akbar, Shinto, Les Guignols de l'info, Trail of Tears, Alexander the Great, Avicenna, Amitabh Bachchan, Aamir Khan and Antoni Gaudí, for a start.

Finally, I'm a supporter of the effort to improve the quality of Wikipedia's most popular pages, including vital articles. This means more visitors to the site will find that more of the articles they look for are of high quality. In the past three or four years, I've seen innumerable articles on mushrooms, American TV show episodes, English-language songs/albums/artists, pre-Norman English kings, and random hurricanes all grace the main page. In the meantime, articles on basics like "food" are ranked as little better than stubs. I mean, even the article on the United Nations is only at a C right now. So I'm going to try to do my part by getting at least five of the below up to GA in 2017:
Top priority:

• Rwandan Genocide (106,107/month, B)
• United States (999,499/month, B class)
• USAID (11,069/month, C class)
• Genghis Khan

High priority:

• France (542,588/month, B class)
• United Kingdom (576,601/month, B class)
• United Nations (341,582/month, C class)

Mid priority A:

• Osama bin Laden (231,586/month, B class)
• Al-Qaeda (212,278/month, B class)
• Ottoman Empire (206,563/month, B class)
• Democracy (187,226/month, B class)
• Poverty (173,872/month, B class)
• Pompeii (159,143/month, C class)
• Cleopatra (156,639/month, C class)
• Akbar (148,043/month, B class)
• Education (142,251/month, C class)

Mid priority B:

• Bachelor's degree (150,677/month, C class)
• Doctor of Philosophy (115,819/month, Start class)
• Master's degree (112,600/month, Start class)
• Jean-Jacques Rousseau (111,157/month, C class)
• Critical thinking (77,695/month, Start class)
• Pedagogy (74,044/month, Start class)
• Umami (~50,000/month, C class)
  

• List of country pages, in order of popularity